Voices from the Future
by InkDrinker
Summary: After the flock has saved the world, Jeb sends Fang back in time, to the middle of the first book, and Fang learns that he plays a bigger role in the flock's survival than he ever thought. Rated T for swearing.
1. Introductions

**Yay!!! I am writing this for the Fang, Fang, FANG! Contest (created by Maximum Ride Contests :)) in the category Best Action/Adventure! Yay!!!**

**So, I know this first chapter kind of sucks, but it's gonna get better. I just needed to explain several things before getting the story started. Also, just wanted to clear something up. Although there is a small mention of Fax below, there's not gonna be much mushy romantic stuff in here...**

**So anyways, I don't own Maximum Ride. I do own this idea, though. So if anyone else has thought of this, sorry. Oh... you'll find out about the plot in the next couple of chapters, I think. :)**

The wind whipped my overlong hair in front of my eyes. I brushed it aside, frustrated. Max kept telling me I needed a hair cut, and I knew it was true, but I wasn't about to admit it.

You might have figured this out by now, but I'm Fang. You probably know me from Max's book. If you've read it, you know that our mission is to save the world. Or rather, _was._ See, about half a month ago, Iggy and Gazzy made us, like, the _mother_ of all bombs. We freed all the experiments inside the main Itex plant – in Washington state – in the middle of the night, then bombed the stupid sons of bitches in broad daylight, reducing it to a pile of rubble in mere seconds.

So pretty much everyone in the world knew about us now. Not exactly a dream come true for Max and me, but everyone else seemed to enjoy it. The CSM was practically drowning in donations, and there were special schools – at least one in almost every country of the world – for the experiments who had been subjected to the torture of Itex, to help them get up to date on everything they might need to know to help them live a normal life. Soon they would be able to speak and act like normal human beings. The world would, hopefully, accept them, and I was thankful for that. We didn't have to attend them, though, much to the entire flock's relief.

At first, we had been staying at Max's mom's house. But I just don't think that's our thing. After a few days of staying there, we grew restless. And you really don't want to be around a restless Gasman. I guess, after almost a year of being on the run, it's kind of hard for us to settle down.

So here we were, flying contentedly through the air. I think we were somewhere over Texas. We were on our way to Florida – the kids wanted to see Disney again, and the prospect of a beach didn't sound too bad, either. We were coming from California. We hung out there for a couple of days, since the girls wanted to see Hollywood, and us guys saw it back when the flock was split up.

Ugh. Just thinking about that made me shudder. I glanced over at Max. Yeah, we're together now. So just the thought of being apart from her seems like the end of the world to me. I must sound really feminine right now, but I'm not afraid to admit that I love Max. At least, not afraid to admit it in my head. I sighed. I was such a wimp.

"_Max!" _Nudge whined from behind me. "I'm hungry."

"And tired," the Gasman added.

I looked down. We were flying over a really big city.

"I think that's Houston, below us," Max replied. "Let's stop there. You guys wanna stay in a hotel tonight?"

"Yeah!" Nudge said, and the Gasman nodded eagerly. Max looked at me, and I shrugged.

We spiraled downward. We didn't have to try to stay unseen, which was a nice change. But we tried not to be _too_ noticeable. We landed right in front of a hotel. After we checked in – the hotel manager insisted on giving us the best suite for free, which was one of the good things about being famous – we went up to our room. We set our backpacks down on the carpet. They each contained two changes of clothes, and Dr. Martinez and Jeb had insisted on sharing the cost of buying us each an iPod and cell phone. They also gave Max a thousand bucks, which led me to believe that they were swimming in cas or something.

But I digress.

Max sat down in a chair and propped her feet up on the desk that was against the wall. Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy ran off to admire our nice room. Iggy sank carefully onto the couch, then leaned back. I plopped down next to him. Max sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I dunno," she said, looking worn out. "It's just – the lack of stress... it makes things seem _more_ stressful somehow. I'm just so used to being constantly alert, to having to watch for Flyboys and stuff that it's kind of weird not being in constant danger, you know?"

I nodded. I was about to reply, but my phone suddenly rang from my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at the screen, then my brow furrowed. "It's Jeb. Should I answer it?"

Max looked puzzled, but she nodded. I hit the green button and held the phone to my ear. "Yell-o?"

"Fang? It's Jeb."

"I know," I answered shortly. "What's up?" We still weren't so sure about Jeb, but I figured if he was going to turn on us – again – he would've done it by now.

"I need to talk to you in person. Just you, not Max. Where are you right now?"

I frowned. "We're in Houston. Why just me?"

"I'll explain when in see you. Can I meet you guys at dinner in three hours? I'm in San Antonio right now." I wondered absently why he was in San Antonio, but replied, "Fine. Meet us at... that burrito place. Mission Burrito?"

"Okay. See you then."

I hung up. Max, seeing my vaguely puzzled face, asked, "What did he say?"

"He wants to meet us at Mission Burrito. To talk to just me."

Max was about to reply, but was interrupted by shouts from the bathroom.

"Gazzy! Nudge! They have _five_ different colors of bar soaps! No – Gazzy, don't eat them!"

I rolled my eyes and got up. "Gazzy, you're not supposed to consume the complimentary soaps!"


	2. Burritos and Oboes

**I apologize for the huge length between updates! School is quite evil, and it occupies most of my time during the week. And then the dumb FF server got messed up, so I couldn't upload the file. -sigh- But I'm updating now, and I must apologize again, because this chapter is not as long as some people would wish it to be. But I have to get into the long-chapter rhythm, because I don't usually write very long chapters. I'll try to get better, though. :)**

A few hours later, we flew, stomachs rumbling, to the burrito restaurant, which was only about four or five miles from where we were staying. We went in, ordered burritos each, paid, and walked to our seat, leaving the cashier staring incredulously after us.

We sat down in a booth. Iggy and Nudge filed into the booth, then I sat down, and Gazzy, Angel, and Max sat on the other side. I automatically scanned the restaurant out of habit. It wasn't very busy; only two tables besides ours were occupied. One held two girls and a woman. The girls were talking to each other and giggling, and they kept glancing over at us. They probably recognized us from the news. At the other table sat a middle-aged man who was speaking quietly into a BlueTooth earpiece. Neither were suspicious – _nobody_ was, anymore, I reminded myself; there was no more Itex – and neither were Jeb. I frowned and checked my watch.

Next to me, Nudge, Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel were discussing things they'd like to do now that we were no longer technically on the run.

"I wanna learn to play the oboe," Nudge declared. **A/N: That's one! Look at Maximum Ride Contest's profile and look at this contest's rules to see what I mean.**

"The oboe?" the Gasman asked, raising an eyebrow. She turned to him indignantly.

"The oboe is a highly underappreciated instrument!" she said, folding her arms. "Just think – I could be the first Avian-American oboist!" I rolled my eyes. "What do you want to do, Gazzy?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I dunno – maybe Ig and I can open a prank shop!"

Just then, our food came, and I just had time to see the mischievous grin unfold on Iggy's face as he pondered the possibilites of this plan.

As the waitress walked away, the bell on the door jingled. I glanced over to the door.

Jeb stood in the doorway.


	3. Questions

Jeb grinned at us and made his way over to our table. He pulled over a chair from the table next to us and sat down. "Hi, guys." Max nodded at him grimly, without reciprocating the grin, and his smile faltered a bit. Nudge frowned and looked at Jeb, then Max, then me. We hadn't told the younger kids that Jeb was meeting us, so only Max, Iggy, and me had known. And probably Angel, but anyway.

"Are you gonna eat?" Max asked. He shook his head.

"Ate earlier. Fang, why don't you come sit over here with me?" He gestured to a table across the room. I knew he didn't want the rest of the flock to hear whatever he had to tell me. I glanced at Max, and she nodded reluctantly; we had to trust him. The younger kids looked at Max, confused, but she didn't say anything.

_Do you know what he wants?_ I asked Angel silently.

_No, _she sent back to me. _He's blocking me out._

I hesitantly looked back to him and nodded. I set my food down and followed him across the small restaurant. He sat down, and I took the seat across from him.

"Fang," he began. I wondered wryly if he would tell me that I had to save the world. "First, I should tell you that your role in the flock's survival is much larger than you think." He paused as if he was waiting for me to reply. When I frowned but said nothing, he continued, lowering his voice. "I can only tell you so much right now. We're in a public place where anyone can hear, and it's something that would be incredibly difficult to explain to you right now." He hesitated. "I'm going to ask your permission, Fang, to take you back to my lab with me." My eyes narrowed a fraction of an inch, and he continued quickly. "You'd only be gone for about an hour, then you could come right back."

"And I can trust you because..." I said incredulously.

"You can't," he said simply. "The best I can give you is my word. But if you don't come with me, I'm almost certain that it would mean the death of you and the flock."

I blinked. "Seriously? You're going to _kill _me if I refuse to help you?" _Or try to kill me, at least._

He shook his head. "No. Not me. Something else. But I can't explain it to you now. This is why you have to come with me."

I glanced away from him, toward Max. The rest of the flock was staring at me, trying to hear what was going on, and when Max saw me look over, she sent me a questioning glance.

"Can I ask her?" I asked. He nodded, and I stood up.

When I got to her, she leapt up. "What does he want?" she asked urgently. I knew she didn't like not knowing what was going on.

I hesitated before answering. "He wants... he wants me to go back to his lab with me." Her eyes widened, and I went on before she could say anything. "He said I'll be back in, like, an hour. And, Max --" I lowered my voice. "He said that if I don't go with him, we might die. It's apparently _that_ important."

"Why should we trust him?" she asked fiercely.

I shrugged. "I dunno... My first thought was that we shouldn't, but there's something about the way he's talking... I think he's telling the truth."

Max hesitated. She glanced over at Jeb, who was watching us expectantly. Then she sighed and ran her hands through her brown hair. "Fine. If you're not back in two hours, we're going to look for you. And we won't be happy."


	4. Annoying but Necessary: AN

**I know, you guys are gonna hate me for this, but... I think I'm gonna put this story on temporary hiatus. You've probably noticed that I've been having a lot of trouble keeping up with this story. I have another fic going, What Iggy Hears, and at this point in time I don't think I can handle more than one story at once, what with school and everything. So I'll probably start it up again once the stress from school and stuff has died down and I have time to breathe again, but until then, I'll just be working on What Iggy Hears. Sorry, and I hope you're not too pissed at me!! (Yeah, I withdrew from the contest, but I'm still gonna write the fic...)**

**U&A :)  
-Inky **


	5. Voices

**Hey guys! Guess what! I'm baack! Who missed me? :D I'm soo happy about starting up this story again. I know I said that I'd start writing it again once school ended, but... okay, really, my only excuse is that I'm really lazy... Sorry about that. But now I'm writing it again, and I'm gonna try and update every Wednesday. I'm making a schedule for that because I now have three fics going at once, not including a couple that I don't update all that regularly, and if I didn't schedule when I would update I would probably go crazy. But anyways... I hope you like this chapter! :) Review?**

Jeb and I left the restaurant. I followed him awkwardly as he walked toward his car. When he reached it, he turned around.

"You can fly above the car if you'd like."

I frowned. "Okay."

"We'll probably reach my lab in around ten, fifteen minutes. You'll have to fly slow - my car can only go so fast." With that, he climbed into his car, and I took off. I heard a few gasps and claps behind me, but I ignored them.

I flew for about ten minutes. I could probably have made it in half that time, but as Jeb said, I couldn't fly very fast when I had to soar above an earthbound Camry.

Eventually, Jeb's car, which looked like a tiny insect from my height, turned off the highway and pulled into a small parking lot, sort of tucked away where few people could notice it. I followed, circling lower and lower until I eventually landed gently next to Jeb. I folded my wings in tightly - more out of habit than anything.

"Okay, follow me," Jeb said. He led me to the door of a building with nothing on it, no signs, windows, anything. The door was made of glass, but a curtain shrouded it, and I couldn't see the inside.

Jeb inserted a key into the lock, turned it, and pushed open the door.

The room wasn't at all what you'd expect a scientist's lab to look like. I don't know what I expected - I guess something a little bit more like the School. What I found instead was a cozy carpeted room with a couple sofas, a computer desk in the corner, and a mini-fridge.

"Are you thirsty? I've got Coke, Sprite, and water." I shook my head. "All right. Well, let's get down to business. What I'm about to tell you, Fang - well, let's just say you might not believe me right at first. But trust me - it'll all make sense soon."

I nodded, a bit impatiently. Jeb's cryptic way of speaking had been getting on my and the flock's nerves for a long time.

"Okay. I'm sure you're familiar with Max's Voice, yes?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Max has been keeping it from us all this time. Yes, I know."

He ignored my sarcastic comment. "Okay. Have you ever wondered who it was?"

I frowned. "Well, yeah, but-" _Where was he going with this?_

"Fang - _you _are the Voice."

**Okay. This is a lot shorter than it could've been. But I couldn't resist the cliff hanger. ;) Plus it's late, I'm tired, and I have other stuff I have to do. I PROMISE next Wednesday will be longer than this. :) Don't hate me? Review?**


	6. Time Travel

My first instinct was to roll my eyes. Then I saw the look on his face, and I blinked.

"But - that's not possible. How can _I _be the Voice if I was with the flock the whole time?"

"Exactly. You were with the flock, _and_ you were at the School. With me."

"I'm... not following."

"You were sent back in time. Correction: You are _going_ to be sent back in time. The whole past and present tense thing can get pretty confusing, honestly."

I stared at him. "Okay. Flying kids are one thing. _That_ I can deal with. But _time travel? Are you out of your mind?"  
_

__

"Fang," he replied. "In the past few years, we've had huge advances in technology. Recently, we've invented a - well, to put it simply, a time machine. I'm going to send you back in time to two years ago, when you and the flock were still in New York."

I stood up. "Whoa, I don't think so. You expect me to believe that you've got a time machine here?"

He nodded. "Let me show you." He stood and led me into a room off to the side. This room resembled the School's labs a lot more than the other room. It was filled with computers, and on the left, huge screens that were displaying charts and graphs that I couldn't understand. Off to the right was a metal container that looked kind of like an overlarge fridge. Next to it was a stand with lots of buttons and numbers on it.

"Here it is," he said, gesturing to the fridge-like thingie.

I shook my head grimly. "Listen, you've screwed up my life enough already, and you expect me to climb into this metal death trap? Nuh-uh."

"Fang, think back on the past few years. The Voice saved your lives countless times. Not only did it - _you_ - lead the flock to all of their destinations, it told you the location of the main Itex headquarters, whose destruction allowed you to shut down Itex and save the world. Fang - if you don't agree to this, well, I'm not sure what will happen. In fact, I don't think you have a choice. The universe has decided. And I know for a fact that you are going back in time whether you like it or not. _I've already experienced it._"

I couldn't believe it. After all this time, Jeb had finally gone crazy. Loco. Coocoo for Coco Puffs.

But somehow, the look he was giving me... And he was right. The Voice had saved us whenever we needed it, and if I wasn't the Voice, who was? Jeb seemed so sure. So what choice did I have, really? "Do I have your word that the moment I climb in there, some kind of noxious gas or instrument of torture isn't gonna appear and murder me?"

He gave a small chuckle. "You have my word."

I looked at the "time machine," then back to Jeb. I hesitated, then... "Fine. But if you're lying, you better believe Max won't give up hunting you down until your heart's been cut up like a steak."

He blinked. "I'll, uh, keep that in mind."

"All right. So... how does this thing work?"

"You climb in, and then I'll set the time back to two years, seven months, and three days ago precisely. You might want to hold your breath, the travel has been known to be a bit... weakening."

I opened the metal door and climbed inside warily. The tight, confined space made me want to crawl up the walls, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to steady myself. If I was lucky, this wouldn't take too long.

"All right," I heard Jeb say from outside the machine. I heard beeping as he typed something into the keypad. "Two years... seven months... and three days. Good luck! And don't forget, hold your breath!"

Just as I breathed in and held it, the machine began to shake uncontrollably. "Is it supposed to do this?" I asked, panic rising in me. There was no answer. Just as I was about to fling open the door and escape, I found myself immobile. I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe - I couldn't see anything. The only thing I could do was sit as my whole body began tingling as though electricity was flowing through me. I supposed this was why Jeb had told me to hold my breath.

Finally, it stopped. All of it. I opened my eyes and took a shaky breath. With a start, I realized I was no longer in the time machine. I was lying on the floor underneath a table in some sort of lab.

I sat up and hit my head on the bottom of the table. "Goddammit, ow!" I climbed out from under the table to see five whitecoats grouped around a computer, staring at me.

"I, um... sorry. Could one of you show me-"

One of them stepped forward with a smile.

"Ah, so you've arrived. Dr. Batchelder has been expecting you."


	7. Plans

So it had worked. I was really in the past. I blinked a couple times, trying to keep my face impassive, and allowed the whitecoat to lead me to Jeb's office. He stepped inside and told me to wait for a moment. He closed the door behind him, and a couple seconds later, I heard a shout of amazement from inside. The door burst open, and a younger Jeb stood in the doorway. His hair, which was nearly gray in my time, was almost perfectly brown, with only a few small specks of gray here and there. His face was free of wrinkles, and he was wearing a different set of glasses.

"It's... it's really you! This is amazing!" He circled around me, eyes glued to me, examining every inch of me with his hand stroking his almost nonexistent beard. "Wow - you're so old."

"Um... thanks?"

"No, I mean - I'm used to seeing you as a fourteen-year-old, and now - you're sixteen, aren't you?" I nodded. "You've just - grown so much!" Wow... wasn't this stuff you were supposed to hear from your grandmother? "Okay, sorry. It's just - I never expected it to work. I just thought up the idea this morning, you know. I figured I'd have forgotten about it by the time our technology was advanced enough to even _build_ a time machine, but I guess not!" He was beginning to sound a bit eccentric.

"Wait - you only thought of it _this morning? _You mean, you have no idea what to do with me? Why I'm here?" He shook his head.

"You misunderstand. I've had the idea of the Voice for almost six months now, but I've been waiting for the right moment to execute the plan. I was planning on being the Voice myself, but then I realized - who knows Max better than you? It was perfect." He paused. "My... future self did explain everything to you, right?"

"Most of it."

"Okay. Well, at this moment, you and the rest of your flock are just arriving in New York. If everything goes according to plan, you should begin your... guidance of Max by tomorrow night. So we've got a lot to do. First - we have to do some DNA tests." At my alarmed look, he added quickly, "Nothing like that. Just standard protocol. To ensure that you are who you say you are."

I scowled. "Who else would I be?"

"Well - if you must know, the unit in charge of you and your flock has been working on special reproductions of each of you. Clones, you might say. I assume they'll be done by the time that you come from."

"They are," I said quickly. "They were. And - for future reference, Max... can't cook." I thought about it a moment, then added, "Or do _anyone's_ hair. Let alone Nudge's."

He looked confused and said, "O-okay."

"And while we're on the subject-"

"Wait, Fang. You can't tell me too much about the future. It could cause a paradox. It's dangerous enough that you're here at all. It'd be better for everyone if you just keep quiet about anything that will happen in the future." I nodded.

"Okay, so off we go."


End file.
